The Intel Core i7 6850k acrylic replica has been completed for the ROG PARAGON case front! Creating a CPU from 1/8" cast acrylic was no easy task but glad I decided to create it all the same. With hours of filing, sanding and polishing it has finally taken shape and come together.

I have ordered the Republic of Gamers black vinyl logo that will be sandwiched in between the CPU pieces. It will look really good with the In Win 509 RGB LED box from the front center logo behind it. Can't wait to get everything together!

Sorry for the delay but had some on and off weather with little time to myself. What time I did have I spent modding, painting and planning. Hope you enjoy the new post!

Below is the front glass all together. I have not fully mounted the acrylic CPU yet since I am still waiting on my vinyl’s to finish the job. The ROG logo will be sandwiched between the CPU pieces in black so will be highlighted like the batman light once complete with its own Aura LED RGB module from the In Win 509 behind it.

The plan for the ROG PARAGON was to have an extremely clean cabling look all in black with only some white letter on hardware, 2 red ROG PARAGON 1” high vinyl’s and full RGB. In order to get everything properly I placed the Rampage V Edition 10 into the 509 and marked exactly where the cabling would go to the motherboard.

I began by removing most of the rivets from the inner chassis of the In Win 509. Using a 1/8” drill bit and a high speed drill I removed the case rivets until I could remove the inner chassis and 5 ¼” bay. I also removed the red I/O covers as well to be sprayed black.

I used the Dremel cutting disks to cut the cabling ports out of the 509 frame and chassis. Once cut I then rounded the ports with flat small file, small round file and sandpaper. Sharp edges would be a bad thing when it comes to cabling. I have also ordered 1/8” U channel for the new cabling ports to prevent any damage to the Cablemod ModMesh cables.

I placed the ports exactly ½” from the motherboard itself. This will allow for a tight cable bend and clean cabling. I will also be cutting PCB blanks to cover everything except the cable ports I created for the RVE10 motherboard layout. To compliment that I will be creating a power supply cover with the PCB blanks as well.

These ports in particular required two cuts ... the 12V 4 Pin and 8 pin CPU cable for the RVE10. I wanted the ports to come out exactly at the motherboard port for a clean look so the cuts will pay off in the end.

Now that the ports were cut I began spraying the chassis, I/O plates and the frame black. Here is where I ran into problems. The temperature had dropped to 0c and I had to create a spray booth using the box from DXRacer and a small portable heater. This worked out really great and was even better than spraying in warm weather. The temperature inside the box is a nice 32c! I left 3 coats of Krylon Super Maxx Satin black bake onto the chassis and frame for 4 hours. Turned out great!

Next I had to create a couple custom ports for the Cablemod Magnetic 60cm Aura RGB LED light strips for the front. The strips will be just below the top front panel and behind the acrylic LED inlayers on the front glass. The LED strips will also be on either side of the front filter and with the LED being magnetic I will be easily able to remove them for cleaning the tower. The ports will allow them to dive into the chassis and will loop over the top of the 5 ¼” bay. This will also light up another addition you guys will see soon!

I also used the trusty DXRacer spray booth again once the LED ports were cut, trimmed and rounded. The last coat is baking as we speak!

Spent about 24 hours modding this weekend and wanted to give an update to show the progress! Made a bunch of PCB blank cuts and created the power supply cover, motherboard tray cover, upper hard drive bay cover, mounting for the front panel and everything is painted! Will do a couple more PCB mods and start putting the ROG PARAGON together! Hope you guys like the pics and thanks for following!

Back with some great updates and this may take several posts before I can get it all down I have been hard at work modding and building the ROG PARAGON and it is starting to come to life! Hope to be able to finish the build in the next two weeks and had to change up some things.

First I changed the accent color from red to white. With the dark tinted glass and acrylic the white had a much better contrast! The Rampage V Edition 10 and Strix 1080 were my inspirations for this build and I wanted to be able to show case two features ... ALL black and RGB LEDs. The only real color the stands out on the RVE10 is the white writing. Also the ROG Certified on the side glass of the 509 is white as well. The contrast was great against the black PCB and is the reason I chose white as my secondary.

I have also ordered all of the vinyls and hardware and am only waiting on fan decals and 150 feet of 1/16 inch wide vinyl pinstripe. Wish I had about two more PCB blanks to finish the build off but made due with what I had. Modding is sometimes about making those compromises

Not counting vinyls, modding equipment and gear that is pretty much the entire list!

After all of the gear was in I then did the test fits above in my earlier post then proceeded to finishing the mods. I had an ROG Maximus PCB blank as well I decided to use as a fan grill for the middle divider on the 509. I removed a bunch of metal from the fan brackets on the inside divider and made sure they were in line with the fans. I then created a 360mm hex pattern for the fan grill and using the Dremel cutting disks and files created this fan grill to cover the metal fan bracket.

Next mod was to the SSD/Fan bracket for the front bay. This is what I will be using to mount the EKWB 360mm rad and the stock In Win X pattern in the middle of them was restricting airflow. Again using the dremel I removed them from the brackets increasing airflow and function.

I will be doing more updates in the next couple days and also providing the LED light test which went really well! Stay tuned for more updates! Build completion is around the corner!!!!

12-31-2016, 05:40 PM

ChasBurkhart

1 Attachment(s)

I have the front bay Rad/Res and fans installed along with the custom fan grill! Wish I had enough PCB blanks to do 3 more fan grills to finish the build off but will work with it :) Could only fit one set of fans and use a 200mm Res in the front bay but with the air redirected and positive air pressure achieved there should be zero cooling issues. I will begin adding hardware and finishing the build this week.

I have also finished my LED light test to identify any issues with the fan and LED strips. 3 spots were identified and have been repaired. Hope you enjoy the short LED test video! More updates coming soon!

I identified 3 places to adjust the LEDs. The CPU case front logo LEDs, a bright single LED on the bottom left front and the In Win logo on the 5.23 bay was also off.
To address these issues, I created an acrylic LED box for the CPU logo, custom channel for the 5.25 bay LEDs and used light defusing material for the front LED ports. This helped give it that nice even glow and not blinding.

Due to the 200CM limitation of the ASUS Aura LED header I was not able to use the In Win stock RGB LEDs. Instead I opted for 4 60cm magnetic Cablemod Widebeam RGB LEDs with a Y-Splitter and RGB adapter.

I knew this was more than the recommended 200cm and upon research I found that it would dim the power of the LEDs. Again, this fit into my plan of having a nice glow and NOT being overly bright. I also added another 60cm of Cablemod LEDs to the rear side lip of the chassis from the back and across the top left of the chassis divider hooked to the Cablemod controller. Attachment 62253Attachment 62254
After the LEDs were sorted I then installed the fans, Rad and Res/Pump into the front bay. Again, I did not have enough room in the front bay to do a Push/Pull config on the radiator but was confident the 3 Corsair SP120’s would be enough air flow to keep the 6850k nice and cool. I used the EKWB Pump Bracket to mount the X-res into the bottom of the front bay then began added the rest of the hardware.Attachment 62255
Judging by the low clearance of the inside 509 chassis I ran the 8 Pin and 4 Pin CPU cables ahead of time to avoid any issues installing the board. I used Artic MX-4 thermal compound on the 6850k since I have had very good luck with it in the paste. All of the other hardware went in like a glove after that. Once the hardware was in place I started to bend the PETG tubing for the cooling solution.

For the PETG tubing I was planning on using the benders but after a couple failed tubes decided to do my bends free hand instead. I found that the benders would cause imperfections in my bends and you don’t see them until they have set causing the tubing to be ruined. Free hand went much smoother and after a couple bending sessions I began adding the fittings. Attachment 62256
When the loop was finished, I used some scrap PCB to create a cover for the bottom of the X-Res and to hide some of the cabling from the pump. I wanted a FULL PCB look on the inside of the case and to cover as much surface as possible with PCB. Attachment 62259
Once the water loop was finished I then ran a couple power cords to fill and test the loop for leaks. Using a EKWB PWM to STAT adaptor, Peripheral power cord, SATA power cord, 24 Pin power cable and 24 pin self-tester that came with the EVGA Supernova I had power test the loop. I made sure not to plug any power into any of the components including the fans and added absorbent shop towels in layers across all of the leak points in the system to insure none of the electronics would be damaged in case of leaks.Attachment 62257
Using a liter of clear EKWB Ekoolant I filled up the reservoir and flipped the power switch on the Supernova. The pump pushed the Ekoolant through the system with a rush and after several flips of the power switch on the Supernova and a full liter of Ekoolant the loop was completely full! I ran the system for 48 hours to insure there were no leaks and upon inspection not a single drop had escaped the EKWB loop.Attachment 62258
Next came the hardware post test. Connected all of the hardware and loosely ran the ModMesh cables to their respective locations. I would rather do cable management after the post test in case the cables had to be undone due to hardware issues or routed a different way for cable management. With everything in place and all points of contact gone over numerous times the power was flipped again.

With a brief pause the LED lights on the Rampage V Edition 10 lit up the inside of the case. As any builder knows this is the point that makes your stomach clench and fingers to cross. With eyes on the motherboard and another hand on the power switch I pressed the case power button. The rush of air, EKoolant and wild array of LED lights sprang to life. The Q-Codes ran through the entire post process ending on a reassuring “A9” for “Start of Setup”.

Diving into the UEFI of the RVE10 was a breath of fresh air. The amount of control ROG gives its Users is a blessing and a boon. For a basic User it is way too much but for an Enthusiast it is exhilarating! With about 20-30 minutes I was able to complete the setup and insure all hardware was visible to the motherboard.

As expected the only issue I found was the HyperX memory was down clocked to the base 2133MHz as expected. With a couple clicks I was able to bring it back up to the 2400MHz rating using the XMP profile. After the base system had some time to run at idle and monitor the system temps I would begin the install process of Windows.Attachment 62260
CPU temps stayed at a crisp 26c-32c throughout the remainder of the day. Zero leaks and zero issues were detected within the System! The one thing that was very noticeable throughout the day was the absence of noise while the System was running. I set the fan curves at a base of 40% and to ramp up to 60% at 50c. The CPU never seen this temperature J The water pump was connected to the RVE10 dedicated water pump header and was running at max speed. Again the system was very silent.

With good temps, stability and no leaks I began the lengthy process of cable management and finding out where they best fit for a clean look and still allow me to close the side door! There was not much room in the 509 for cabling on the side but to my dismay it was manageable! With many zip ties and cable binding the cable management was complete. To my shock the side door popped into place with no issues and slid nicely into place.

I used the Cablemod clear cable combs so they would react off of the LEDs in the system and further enhance the LED accents. Wanting to keep that ridged look I also added an additional cable comb to the 24 pin and it gave it a similar look to the HyperX Savage memory DIMMs. I was not able to add the combs to the 4pin and 8pin CPU cables due to the very low clearance. It placed too much stress on the ports and cable so I was forced to avoid them here.

Again, the power switch was flipped and with a press of the case power button the ROG PARAGON was alive and well with a Q-Code of “A9” still waiting for setup to be completed. I knew there were stability improvements on the latest UEFI BIOS and so I applied it using the UEFI utility BIOS utility. This process was as smooth as the others and after yet another reboot I was back to the “A9” Q-Code.

With the ROG USB drive that came with the RVE10 and the Windows 10 USB in the rear USB 3.0 slots I hit the Exit and Save in the UEFI and waited for the Windows welcome screen. It was faster than I had expected and within minutes Windows was installed to the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 drive. Downloaded and installed the latest drivers and programs from ROG along the OS then set program defaults.

After several other programs, I downloaded Cinebench R15 to see some initial results. I have also downloaded 3D Mark and will be throwing some scores up later on. The system appeared to be very stable and everything was functioning as expected! The first thing I ran was Cinebench at stock speeds and was pleased with the initial results. See results below!Attachment 62261